Tuesday, 26 April 2011

City Hall's election managers have written to journalists asking them to stop making the false claim that the Mayor of London is elected under the Alternative Vote system.

CLARIFICATION

We have noticed that there have been some inaccuracies recently regarding the election of the Mayor of London. For any editorial stories you are writing, I wanted to clarify the voting system used in London to ensure there is no voter confusion ahead of the 2012 Mayoral elections.

The Mayor of London is elected by supplementary vote, not alternative vote.

Quite how this terrible misconception could have arisen in the minds of the British press is beyond me, although it may have something to do with statements like this one in the Daily Telegraph:

It is the system, I may as well admit, that is used in London mayoral elections. [AV] may be just about tolerable there; but I can see no case whatever for introducing it across the country.

Ken Livingstone has confirmed that he will not re-appoint his disgraced former aide Lee Jasper if re-elected next year.

A spokesperson for Livingstone said today:

"No. Ken has made it clear that if he wins the Mayoral election next year there will be a new team at City Hall. Lee Jasper has moved on, he isn’t working for Ken and won’t be part of his team at City Hall."

The comments follow a rather hopeful blog post from Andrew Gilligan claiming that "the signs have been growing that Ken, if re-elected, is preparing to do what he promised in 2008 – and bring Jasper back."

Quite what these "signs" are and where they have been growing isn't exactly made clear, especially as Gilligan's former paper reported that Jasper will not return three months ago.

Even more mysteriously, Team Ken tell me that Gilligan did not even bother to ask them whether Jasper would be returning before posting his story.

Disgraced Mayoral aide returns

Meanwhile, another disgraced Mayoral aide accused of financial and sexual misconduct, falsifying a CV and using homophobic, sexist and racist language did actually return to City Hall last year.

The "signs" of Ray Lewis's return were fairly easy to spot on the websites of the BBC, Evening Standard and elsewhere but for some reason Andrew Gilligan failed to pick them up.